Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S.)
Visual Arts recipient 2023
Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S.) was established in the summer of 2018 with the intention of bringing together a community of queer, trans and non-binary black and people of colour involved in art, sound and radical activism. Following in the legacies of sound system culture they wanted to learn, build and sustain a resource for our collective struggles. The black-led system, based in London, is available to use or rent by community groups and others with the purpose of amplifying and connecting them.
B.O.S.S’s work includes renting the system to the community at subsidised rates or for free, technical workshops, live performance events, club nights, art installations and various creative commissions including a short film ‘Collective Hum’ (2019) for LUX & the ICO and ‘The Only Good System is a Sound System‘ for Liverpool Biennial (2020). In 2021 B.O.S.S. was shortlisted for the Turner Prize and presented an exhibition at Herbert Museum and Gallery Coventry.
“At this stage of the collective’s growth, receiving this award has given us so much breathing room. We can now focus on the various community initiatives we have been working on without having to constantly think about covering basic costs. That sort of space to think and create is just so freeing, especially in a city like London. And yeah the money is great too!”
Members of the collective include: Adedamola Bajomo, Kiera Coward Deyell, Phoebe Collings-James, Evan Ifekoya, Onyeka Igwe, Marcus Macdonald, Shamica Ruddock, Shenece Oretha and Gin Wilson.
Examples of work
COLLECTIVE HUM, 2019
Digital video. 6 minutes 44 seconds duration (2 minute extract). A short film exploring the polyphony of collectivity in the desires, motivations and stories that foreground the histories and present(s) of Black British sound. Collective Hum documents a collective in practice through the operation of B.O.S.S. using multiple narration, overlapping voices and the sound of group interviews, meetings and events to create a polyphonic score to soundtrack images of the ‘collective bodies, kinaesthetic experience and gestural language’ of Soundsystem culture. Presented at the Abundance in Togetherness exhibition, Cubitt Gallery (London,2023); BLK Art Group 40th Anniversary screening, BFI London (2023); EXiS Festival (Seoul,2022); Singapore International Film Festival (2021); Reverberations: A response to the Her Noise archive, Chelsea Space (London, 2021) and The Joyous Thing 2, Outlands Festival (2020).
THE ONLY GOOD SYSTEM IS A SOUNDSYSTEM, 2021
An immersive environment created as an expansion of their short film, Collective Hum (2019). The installation reflects and describes ways in which marginalised groups have developed methods of assembling against a background of repression and discrimination in the UK. B.O.S.S. position Soundsystem culture as a space of communal strength and encounter, where kinship is formed and reciprocated. The audio-visual installation envelops the viewer, resonating through the body, creating a club-like space of collective pleasure and healing. Presented at The Herbert Gallery and Museum (Coventry, 2021) and FACT (Liverpool, 2021).
HILLZ FM LIVESTREAM RADIO DAY, 2021
Photograph of B.O.S.S’s Livestream Radio Day in collaboration with Hillz FM at The Herbert Gallery as part of their show for The Turner Prize. Hillz FM is a community radio station local to The Herbert Gallery, and all live streaming equipment purchased for the event was donated to Hillz FM afterwards.
THE BLACK OBSIDIAN VOGUE BALL, 2022
An image from The Black Obsidian Vogue Ball at the Rivoli Ballroom (London, 2022), hosted in collaboration with Bambi Revlon aka Omar Jordan Phillips. Members of B.O.S.S. also installed the Soundsystem, co-produced and provided sound tech for the event. Ballroom culture originated in Harlem, New York and has since spread across the globe. Pioneered by Crystal Labeija, the Ballroom scene celebrates and prioritises LGBTQIA+ people of colour. Members of the Ballroom scene come together for competitions called ‘Balls’ in which individuals and ‘Houses’ compete in fashion, beauty, realness and performance categories for prizes. Ballroom is a safe® space that prioritises QTIBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Intersex, Black, Indigenous, People of Colour).